Community Church Sermons

The Second Sunday After Epiphany, Year C - January 14, 2000

"Married To A Dream"

Isaiah 62:1-5

Today's sermon begins with a wonderful word of hope from the prophet Isaiah.

The setting is Babylon - modern day Iraq - to which the Israelites have been deported after the catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. What had begun with glory and power when God led the Hebrew slaves out of bondage in Egypt hundreds of years earlier, has now turned into the ultimate disaster. In going after false gods, the people have abandoned their calling to be a jewel among the nations - a model community of faith, justice, and human compassion. And now, because they have constructed a culture that has abandoned God, and so tramples the poor and vulnerable, that elevates the self over the community, God's judgment has come in the form of the Babylonian army.

Jerusalem has been torn down and burned. The glorious Temple that Solomon built has been leveled to the ground. And the people have been taken back into slavery there by the waters of Babylon, which - interestingly - is where their faith heritage was first formed when God placed Adam and Eve in the garden that once existed at the intersection of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They are back at square one. And they are sick at heart over the loss of the promises God made to them.

There are times in all our lives when things crumble and fall. Sometimes through no fault of our own, but because life is hard and full of pain. And sometimes our lives fall apart by way of our own hand - when we make wrong choices, and behave in ways that contradict God's laws for building and living life as good and full as it is meant to be.

Oh, sometimes we find ourselves with the Israelites, weeping by the waters of Babylon. And it doesn't really matter how we got there. All that matters is that we're a long, long, long way from home. And it hurts so deeply, and crushes our spirit.

It interests me that biblical scholars have identified at least two strands of prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah. The first strand contains prophecies of doom spoken while Israel is still safe in its land before the Babylonian war. Isaiah is like one of those guys you see on a busy street corner, wearing a sandwich board sign that reads, "Repent! The end is near!" Except the message goes further than that. Isaiah warns Israel's leaders that if they continue to trample on the poor, if they continue to overlook justice, if they continue to ignore their heritage as God's model community for the world, disaster will strike.

And, of course, they don't listen. And disaster comes, sending the people into exile. The first strand of Isaiah's message is the strand of warning and doom.

But now that judgment day has come, and the people find themselves in bondage so far, far away from home, a second strand of prophecies begins. And they are prophecies of hope. Today's reading is one such prophecy.

Isaiah says he will not keep silent until the fortunes of Israel are restored. He foresees a day when God's glory returns to Israel, and all the nations see it. He promises the people that God is at work, creating a new day. That once again they will be like a crown of beauty, a royal diadem in God's hands. A day when God will so delight in Israel that he will marry her!

You see God's judgments are never for the purpose of mere punishment. Rather, judgment falls for the purpose of rebuilding, restructuring, reordering, REDEEMING the dream that God gave us in the first place!

And so Isaiah paints a picture of the future Israel - a society where God is present with the people, where justice rolls like a mighty river, where with all their hearts, people love their God, and love their neighbor, too. He paints a picture of Israel restored as God's model community where faith, love, mercy, peace and justice shine like the sun!

Isaiah says, "God has married this dream!"

And then Isaiah invites you and me to marry it, too!

Now, I know what all the married people out there are saying. "I'm married to a dream already, why would I want to marry another one?" Right?

There is a cute Middle Eastern story about a man named Mulla Nasrudin. It seems Mulla was sitting in a tea shop one day when a friend came excitedly to speak with him.

"I am about to get married, Mulla!" his friend said. "I am very excited! Tell me, Mulla, have you ever thought about getting married yourself?"

"When I was younger," said Nasrudin, "I used to think about it all the time. I very much wanted to get married; but I decided to wait for the perfect woman."

"What happened?" asked the friend.

"Well, I traveled to Damascus and there I met a beautiful woman who was gracious and kind and deeply spiritual; but she had no worldly knowledge. So I traveled further; and in Jordan I met a woman who was both spiritual and worldly, beautiful in many ways, but we did not communicate very well. Finally, I went to Cairo and, there, after much searching, I found her - the perfect woman: she was spiritually deep, graceful, beautiful in every respect, generous and at home in the world; and we got along very well!"

"And did you marry her?" asked his friend.

"Alas," said Mulla, shaking his head, "unfortunately, she was looking for the perfect man."

But Isaiah is not talking about marrying that kind of dream. No, the dream God is married to and wants us to wed is the dream of becoming a model community of spiritual wellness - a society in which God's justice and righteousness preside over all its affairs.

Today is the Sunday before the Martin Luther King holiday, and we remember Dr. King's most famous sermon entitled, "I Have A Dream". In the sermon, Martin looks out from within the Babylonian-like prison of our terribly racially divided society, and sees God's future! And what progress has been made since that time toward racial reconciliation in America has come about because Dr. King and others married themselves to God's dream.

Don't look at them now, but in your bulletin this morning are two documents. One is a Time Magazine article from December 17th, 1956 describing how the people of Clinton, Tennessee wed themselves to the cause of racial justice. The order had come to integrate the schools, and hardly anyone thought it was a good idea. Least of all, a group of hardened segregationists who were egged on by outside agitators. Clinton became a hotbed of fear and anxiety. The segregationists vowed to take control of the city government come election day. They worked against those candidates who supported integration.

Then, one day, someone stood up and married the dream. The Rev. Paul Turner, one of Clinton's pastors, announced that on election day, he would personally escort the black children from their homes to Clinton High School. And that day, he did just that. But after he dropped the children off at school, Rev. Turner was mugged and badly beaten by a mob of screaming men and women. It was a terrible mess.

But out of that violence, an amazing thing happened. The people of Clinton responded by going out to the polls in record numbers. By margins of more than 3 to 1, the segregationist candidates were defeated, and Judge T. Lawrence Seeber was elected mayor. His son, Lynn Seeber, sits right over there (at the 10:30 service). And Lynn and his wife Willie even today are strong advocates for racial reconciliation. Recently, they donated some beautiful acreage on Watts Bar Lake to the Cedine Bible Camp - a beautiful ministry for black children begun years ago by a Christian couple from - of all places - Michigan!

Like Dr. King, and Rev. Turner, and his father, Lynn Seeber is married to the dream.

Isaiah tells us in his prophecy that the only way God's dream will be realized is when each of us embraces it, and takes personal responsibility for it. "I will not keep silent until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch!" the prophet declares.

So how might we take a personal stake in that part of God's dream that seeks to build a racially united society? Don’t look at it now - but that question brings us to the second document in your bulletin.

Last November, a number of us traveled to Birmingham, Alabama for the regional meeting of our group of Community churches. Most of you know that our International Council of Community Churches was formed to demonstrate Christian unity not only ecumenically, but racially. We are attempting to be a model of what the church can be. Half our churches are comprised of mostly black members, and half, of mostly white members.

It touched me to worship in that little Mt. Zion church on 19th street in Birmingham that day last November. Not too far from there - in fact, just around the corner on 16th street - is where a bomb was hurled into a Baptist church on September 15th, 1963. Sunday School classes were going on when - at 10:25 AM - the bomb, made of 15 sticks of dynamite, exploded. Four little girls - Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, Carol Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins - were killed. Fourteen were injured. In the violence that followed, two black boys were killed. It was the fourth racially motivated bombing in a month in Birmingham.

You might expect that a community that has experienced such Babylonian-like pain might react simply with reactive anger, and vengeful retribution. You might wonder how blacks and whites could ever come together after something like this, along with all the other racial strife in the city's history. For some, I suppose, it is just not possible.

But for others, including our sisters and brothers at Mt. Zion, there is hope that God is indeed at work, building a better world. There is faith that God is building a new city that is not like the first city - a new Jerusalem, if you will. A place where the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood - where our little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character - a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls, and walk together as sisters and brothers.

Our Community churches in Birmingham have married a dream! And one of the things they have done about it is work with other churches, community leaders, elected officials - people of every race - to advocate the spreading of The Birmingham Pledge. The pledge is simply a way for each of us to take personal responsibility for helping this particular slice of God's dream come true. It reads like this:

I believe that every person has worth as an individual.

I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color.

I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful;

If it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.

Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions.

I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity.

I will treat all people with dignity and respect; and I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

Since the idea was born in 1998, The Birmingham Pledge has captured the imagination of thousands of people, not only in Birmingham, but all around the world. More than 70,000 people have signed the pledge, applying it into their own cities and towns.

And today you have an opportunity to sign it, too.

You see, Isaiah teaches us that marriage is a two-way street. The dream that God is married to means nothing unless we also marry it, and devote our lives to it.

Yes, it is true that our society remains in the Babylon of racial division and strife. But today, modern-day prophets are sounding a word of hope: God is married to a dream in which America becomes a nation in which people of all colors, ages, races, and creeds become a family together. A family in which God is loved, and neighbors are cared for. A family through which the whole world will see that racism doesn't have to be, and that compassionate unity can become a reality.

God is married to this dream. Will you marry the dream, too?

If you will, before you leave today, fill out the Birmingham Pledge. Place it in the basket in the Narthex, or in the church office, or hand it to an usher. We'll send them along to our sisters and brothers at Mt. Zion so they will know that Tellico Village Community Church is standing with them at the altar.

Even now, in the midst of the Babylonian-like strife and division of our own day, God is sending us a message. There is hope! God has married himself to the dream of racial reconciliation!

And God invites you and me, to come and marry the dream, too!